The Perilous Gard is a weird book, and one of my favorite findings over the past couple of years. Although set on the fringes of the court scene of Tudor England, it is loosely based on the ballads of Tam Lin, an old Scottish story of a man who is rescued from the Faery Queen by a woman who holds on to him as he is horribly transformed under a spell. The contrast of a “modern” England (which is written so as to feel modern – not a sentimental “historical fiction” feel) with backwoods beliefs sets up a very interesting tension.
What makes this book so worthwhile, in spite of its darkness and the presence of cultic activity, is the character of Kate Sutton. She is a painfully human character, prone to anger, clumsiness, irritability, curiosity and inability to quickly solve the mystery. However, she has a core of steel that ends up being pivotal to the plot. She refuses to leave well enough alone when she believes that all is not well, and her instincts save more than one life. Also, when confronted by the Lady in Green (the fairy queen), she alone has the strength of mind and purpose to eventually convince the Lady that humanity may not be a completely inferior race after all.
One conversation occurs between Kate and the Lady that reminds me somewhat of the conversations between C.S.Lewis’ character Ransom and the devil-man in Perelandra; the Christian side is trying to explain why the demonic side is wrong, but the truth they speak is taken by the demonic side and perverted so that the truth appears to support the lie. Perseverance through this utter frustration is something I love to see in a book, and you have it here, though on a much smaller scale than in Perelandra. Kate consistently chooses to do the best she knows how, which in some cases is a hard choice, because she knows she has no power and no control over the outcome of impossible situations when the lives of many depend on her, and in other cases is an even harder choice because if she gave in to temptation, no one would apparently be harmed or ever even know but herself.
Kate’s utter practicality, while making it hard for her to accept the supernatural possibilities of the situation, is also a vital part of the story – and she uses it to help Christopher snap out of self-glorifying depression. She is not a wonderwoman, but she uses all she has to do the only good she knows how to do.
I should also mention Kate’s sister, a brainless beauty who causes all sorts of trouble for Kate, but who is beloved anyway; Christopher’s elder brother, who could have been a savior of sorts if he had been less afraid and more patient; and the overseer of the Perilous Gard who is an evil human being who shows himself a pandering coward in the face of the Lady in Green, clearly being out of his depth.
I recommend this book for mature teens – the characters are well-written, the mystery not predictable, and the subplots really almost more interesting than the surface story.